Son Heung-Min already has a legitimate claim to being South Korea‘s greatest footballer of all time.
In what has been a glittering career thus far, he reached another significant milestone on the international stage on Thursday.
As he converted a 19th-minute penalty in what eventuated in a 3-1 win over Kuwait in the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Son notched his 50th goal for South Korea.
The Tottenham star is now just nine goals away from surpassing the legendary Cha Bum-Kun’s record haul of 58 that has stood for almost three decades now. He is also just six games away from matching South Korea’s appearance record — jointly held by Cha and current national team coach Hong Myung-Bo.
There are those who, with some validity, believe that team success should still be the barometer when ultimately appraising Son’s legacy and where he stands among icons from a previous generation.
Hong will always go down as the captain of the team which famously finished fourth at the 2002 World Cup, although it is worth remembering that Cha’s accomplishments on the international stage were an Asian Games gold medal and a runners-up finish at the AFC Asian Cup — both of which Son has achieved.
Even if Park Ji-Sung is thrown into the mix, he too never won an Asian Cup although he was part of the 2002 World Cup side, and also has a long list of team silverware with Manchester United and PSV Eindhoven.
It is unconceivable that Son will not eventually become South Korea’s record goal-scorer and appearance-maker. He may even achieve it within the next 12 months.
For now, the cause for the plaudits to continue falling Son’s way will come form him reaching a half-century of international goals on Thursday and, yet, it was far from the only thing for the Taegeuk Warriors to smile about.
There has been plenty of talk surrounding the South Korea captain’s strenuous workload of late. He missed the previous international window due to an injury sustained while on club duty.
Just last week, Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou stressed that Son was still working his way back to full fitness and shared his hope that he might not be overly exerted while on his current South Korea duty.
It would have come as huge relief to Postecoglou that Son was only required to play 65 minutes on Thursday, with South Korea’s control of proceedings allowing them to give their skipper an early rest ahead of next week’s meeting with Palestine — who happen to be the only side to have denied them victory so far in the third round of Asian qualifiers.
And while Son reaching a half-century of international goals undeniably grabbed the headlines, it far from the only thing for the Taegeuk Warriors to smile about.
Fittingly, the man that came on for him — and sealed the victory with a third goal — also looks one with an excellent chance of reaching a similarly lofty level in the future.
Bae Jun-Ho is still only 21 but he is already catching the eye in England with Championship outfit Stoke, who were convinced to sign him when he had just 25 professional appearances under his belt.
Like Son, Bae can do a job in any of the attacking positions although he does his best work down the left.
He is one for the future but is showing he can also contribute in the here and now, having scored twice from just five senior caps even if he has to bide his time behind the likes of Son, Lee Kang-In, Hwang Hee-Chan and Lee Jae-Sung.
While there is already plenty of hype over an even younger prospect in 18-year-old Yang Min-Hyeok, who will join Son at Tottenham in January, there is still plenty of development in his game to come — with Bae significantly further down the road to being the finished article.
Even if Son continued to be the star attraction on Thursday, there was another accomplished display from Hwang In-Beom.
The midfield metronome is arguably as influential a player as Son and provided glorious assists for both Oh Se-Hun and Bae — the first, with an inch-perfect ball over the top, and the second, with a incisive slide-rule pass that few others could have envisioned.
Hwang In-Beom already boasts extensive experience in previous spells with Rubin Kazan, Olympiacos and Red Star Belgrade but he might just have reached new heights since moving to the Eredivisie with Feyenoord in the summer.
And it wasn’t just all about the established campaigners.
Thursday also saw international debuts for Lee Hyun-Ju and Lee Tae-Seok.
The former was signed by Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich even before he made his professional debut and is currently honing his craft in the German second tier with Hannover, while the latter will be no stranger to Hong given his father — Lee Eul-Yong — was a longtime teammate of Hong who played 51 times for South Korea.
All in all, there were plenty of positives for Hong to take out of Thursday evening — which would have been even more heartening given things haven’t exactly gone his way since he took over the job back in July.
His appointment was greeted with skepticism and it did not help that his second stint at the helm of the Taegeuk Warriors was that goalless stalemate with Palestine, which saw him on the receiving end of boos from his own supporters.
Despite the negativity that lingers around him, Hong has done alright.
South Korea are unbeaten in the third round of Asian qualifiers and now hold a healthy five-point lead in Group B at the halfway point.
He still relies on his Europe-based stars but has been able to hand opportunities to younger and domestically-based players simply because he is familiar with them, which was a big criticism of his predecessor Jürgen Klinsmann — who now infamously decided against relocating to South Korea and was hence hardly present at K League matches.
Hong still has more work to do to get the South Korea faithful fully onside, a scenario that is nearly impossible for someone like Son to fathom — especially after racking up his 50th goal for his country.
But on an night when Son once again grabbed the headlines, he was just one of several positives for South Korea.
